Crazy cabaret

Yesterday I went with a girl from my singing group to see the woman who runs our singing group perform with her band. They were playing in a really cute little venue called Schoko Laden (which incidentally is a really old performing venue now sadly under threat of closure). There were three performers in total and let's just say - it was an experience!!

The first performer was an Israeli sex worker/poet/journalist who proceeded to strip naked, stick a fire cracker up her arse and then wiggle her bum around as the sparks flit up the room! Interesting! lol

The second performer was also a spoken word/poetry performer - a guy dressed in drag who strutted round the small room screaming at audience members and generally being quite scary. A couple of points during his performance he came close to where I was sitting and I started getting worried he might make me stand up and do a couple of cart wheels in front of the audience. As it happened he settled on a woman in front of me to whom he leaned in close and suddenly let out an ear piercing scream (with a terrifying look of pure evil) before stroking her hair and saying how lovely she looked... I wasn't convinced he meant it! ;)

After he finished, the Israeli woman came back to the stage wearing a big baggy skirt. Then she sat down, leaned back and spread her legs akimbo to reveal ALL (I thought we were going to get one of those infamous ping-pong ball shows!) as she read a poem about how she was far more than a sex worker - she was also a writer and a poet. After that she donned a jilbab (the Muslim woman's head cover) and stripped the rest of her body naked again to reveal drawings of the different Middle Eastern countries. Then she danced around to the song 'Do you want a piece of me?'

I have to say that despite the initial gasps of shock, it was a very though provoking performance! It's always nice to be challenged - and this performance certainly did that!

Well then our singing group girl and her band came on and were really good. They sang a great little song called Windows which my friend was a huge fan of (kind of a Chicks on Speed type song - I'll try to get a link up!)

After they finished the other guy came back again. He was also pretty good I think. I'm a sucker for poetry so I found it all really interesting! I think he must have been a leo because he just didn't want to get down off that stage! After being told time was up and the venue had to close, he started arguing with the venue's manager and eventually asked people to join him in the bar afterwards... so a group of us sat around as he went through his notebook and read all the poems he could find - even the ones he hadn't finished yet. Eventually his friends got up to leave and shouted at him that he was going to miss the last u-bahn (tube). He didn't seem to mind though...

I really enjoyed listening to his poetry and was really glad I'd gone to the show!












(This picture is from another night but it gives you an idea of how cute the venue is!)

Trivial Pursuit in German!

The day after the art shows, I was invited round to a German friend's house for an afternoon of games. This turned out to be two Germans and three of us terribly useless English-type people (me from England, one from America and one from Aus). And the highlight? The game was in German!

Well anyone who's a regular player of Trivial Pursuit will know that even in English it's hard to get the hang of all the questions, so German was a challenge to say the least! At the 10th 'who was the third German foreign minister twice removed's cousin, living in a hole' type question or 'What German football player once did a backflip in honour of x, y and z', us English speaking people were pretty much just pretending we knew what was going on.

Thankfully we split into teams so the nice German people could give us all most of the answers! ;) However, I'm pleased to say that I DID know a couple of answers to the non-obscure questions and even managed to get my team a cheese! Wohooo!! :)

Anyway, I am feeling much less mopey and a whole lot more sane after the art shows/cocktails yesterday and games today and generally just spending time with such lovely people. Sometimes all you need is a bit of perspective!

Art and cocktails

Well just as I was sitting around moping at my horrible misfortune at living in such a lovely place and not feeling as great as I wanted to feel about everything, I suddenly end up having a really fantastic few days!

Sooo well firstly, on Friday evening I went with a friend to the opening of an architectural exhibition. The free vino always makes these events go with a swing! :)

As per usual I arrived horribly late and only heard the tail end of the architect's talk - apparently there were a few talks and they were all very interesting! There was a huge crowd there - more than was expected judging by the fact that the wine kept running out and they had to keep running out for more.

It was actually two exhibitions in one - the first being a mixed exhibit about several prestigious buildings like the New York Times building and the Scottish houses of parliament. It was quite interesting to see all the little scribbles and diagrams by the architects. Apparently the main speaking room in the Scottish houses of parliament is designed so that the light exactly hits everyone in their chairs in exactly the right place - all very interesting!

The other exhibit was about a new plan to build a community area by the Brandenburger Tor round the other side of Pariser Platz. Right now it's pretty much just a traffic island and Pariser Platz is basically a bunch of banks and embassies with a Starbucks thrown in for good measure. Well judging by the fact that this is one of Berlin's biggest tourist pulls, I'd say a 'people place' sounds like a great idea! They are going to build seating areas etc which sounds good...

Anyway, after that we went to a really cute little cocktail bar. I can't remember the name but I think it was pretty close to Senefelder Platz - possibly on Kollwitzstraße. One thing I really like about Berlin is the way that 20 years on, the GDR has become a really sexy phenomenon. Suddenly it's COOL (in caps!) to have a sexy GDR stamp in your passport (you can get this done as a tourist attraction by the Brandenburg Tour) or to go to a GDR disco or bars that look like old GDR living rooms - the fogey old 70s furniture and patterned wallpaper. I happen to love this look! So needless to say I loved this cocktail bar. My friend and I were just cooing about everything. Even a after a trip to the toilet we were like, wow, that was soooo nice! Crazy right!? lol

After our cocktail we went to another exhibition by an artist who takes pictures of light shows. It was also the opening night and was a pretty cool event. For starters it was housed in an old swimming pool - with pictures displayed in old lockers and candles everywhere - really cozy (the health and safety moguls in the UK would have had a field day! ;) ... So they turned all the lights out an this guy starts waving around florescent Star Wars stylie wands and taking pics with a really low shutter speed to capture the full effect.

We didn't get to see much of this as there were too many people in front of us. But the general ambience made this well worth the visit anyway. My friend was a bit disappointed that the exhibition wasn't in the actual swimming pool. I guess even the German health and safety folks have their limits... It would have been nice though!

Should I stay or should I go

Well I probably should have written at least three posts since my last one, so I guess I'll do a couple of micro blogs instead of writing about everything all in one giganticus essay! :)

Soooo... well anyway maybe the biggest thing I was feeling last week is that although I loooove Berlin, I was starting to feel really under the weather and just generally a bit fed up with everything - like the struggle to get freelance work and also feeling like a big huge Billly no mates at times. Don't get me wrong, I've met some really lovely people since I've been here but on the other hand, at this stage in my life (well that would be the ripe old age of 30! ;) there are certain things that I would like to achieve and obviously that's not going to happen If I'm out partying every night. The flip side of that is that because I'm staying in a lot and working on my book etc, I'm not really experiencing Berlin in the way that it's meant to be experienced.

Well that just got me thinking that If I'm not experiencing the full extent of Berlin's wonders, then maybe I shouldn't be here at all! Is that a nuts or defeatist attitude to have? Hmmm...

So anyway, I am kind of thinking should I just move back to Dubai at least until I finish my book and get my freelance career of the ground?

Perks of Dubai:

• Lovely boyfriend who I miiiiissss!
• Sunny weather.
• No rent (lovely boyfriend ;)
• I could take up scuba diving again.
• I could set up a German group to keep up with my language progress - could be fun! :)
  

Why Dubai would suck:

• Horribly sunny weather - like stepping into an oven yanked up high.
• Nothing to do other than go to bars and drink - even though this is technically illegal without an alcohol license and could get you thrown into jail.
• Any 'activities' that I would like to do such as taking an art or language class cost astronomically high prices!
• Would like to do some sort of volunteer work but when I tried this the last time I lived there I was told flat out by several local charities that they already had far too many volunteers - obviously there are either far too many Jumeirah Janes (otherwise know as wealthy white Western housewives) with time on their hands or other similarly conscientious or even not so conscientious people who are despairing with the fact that there is absolutely nothing to do in this place... hmmmm now how was that for a rant!? ;)
• Most of my friends either moved away just before I left or since I left - hence could end up being a big Billy no mates! ;)
• You're always looking over your shoulder - will I get jailed for giving my bf a peck on the cheek, will someone dobb us in for living together etc. The consequences for seemingly normal things by Western standards can be huge!
  

Reasons to live in Berlin:

• Berlin is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in my life... and I've seen a lot of places! :)
• Intellectually stimulating environment.
• Loads to do - everything I've pretty much ever even vaguely considered doing is on the menu here - singing, dancing, yoga, eye yoga, singing yoga - hey you could even strip off and dance around with fire cracker up your arse (as I saw yesterday and will tell in another post - and no that's not on my to do list!! lol).
  
• I've met some really great people here (interesting, fun, intelligent) and it would be great to stay and get to hang out with them some more.
• There's nothing like Berlin in the summer - the place really comes alive. Would be really sad to miss that!
  
• Beautiful cafes and libraries that you can work in or just read a book and spend a really lovely day.
  

Reasons not to live in Berlin:

• Too many distractions.
• Sometimes I wish I had some old friends lying around. Would be so lovely to have my bf here and just be me without all that getting to know you type of conversation. Sometimes I look around me and am so amazed by this beautiful place but on the other hand it's easy to feel lonely too...
  
• Right now it's cooooold!!!!
  
• I feel like there's no point being here if I'm not experiencing it fully.
  
• I feel like maybe I would get some more work done in boring old Dubai!! lol... hmmm
  

Well I guess all in all the benefits of living in Berlin clearly outweigh the benefits of living in Dubai. Maybe I just need to sit it out... I guess those fleeting feelings of isolation really come with the territory of being an expat and moving to a new place. I know it won't last for ever. Maybe all I need is a good old moan! ;)

Sing song

I've been going to a little community choir which has been a lot of fun. Actually it's an English language choir but I've still got to meet some very nice Germans there. We went out for drinks last night for the first time and everyone seems really nice. I guess community choirs are a big thing in England so this is the emergence of that in Berlin - and it's set to be huge! Every week more and more people turn up so I guess the idea is really taking off. What better way to get to know people than through a good sing song!? And not a classical 'let's get this Mozart piece absolutely perfect' sort of way but just a very related sing your heart out, haphazard sort of sing song. Great stuff!

Anyway, we went for drinks afterwards and I was talking to a girl there who said she does 'on the spot feminist poetry' which I thought sounded pretty cool! She said she was doing it in a group and apparently someone just points in your direction and you have a couple of minutes to just some up with whatever sort of empowering womanly poetry that comes into your head. She was also telling me about poetry evenings that they have in bars in Berlin - similar to the poetry live mic nights that they have all over London. I was getting super excited about the idea so will definitely try to check that out sometime!!

Anyway, I was thinking today about the powerful woman thing. Whenever I get down or my career isn't going the way I want it to go or things aren't working out in other areas of my life, the word that goes through my head to make myself feel better is just to try to be strong - ok I know how dorky that sounds right about now, but that's just what comes to mind! But anyway, I think the words 'powerful woman' sound so much more... well, powerful. (For some reason the word strong seems to conjure up images of just about hanging on in there for dear life - I guess it's just more of a passive word)

So I was thinking very generally about the powerful woman thing today and whooosh! I got sooo much work done I was pretty amazed - five freelance story proposals sent out, rang round a few magazines, worked on my German vocab, read some German magazines, sent off those emails I'd been putting off for a while... I guess they're only words but your inner dialogue can have a bit effect!

Brrrrr!

Hello amigos, well the weather in Berlin has taken a sudden turn for the worse. After getting super excited with the feeling of spring coming it's suddenly gone freeeezing cold again. Yesterday it hailed and snowed and the ice started to gather on the pavements again.

For anyone living in Berlin this is a major bummer. For the last couple of months the ice on the pavements has been so thick you could literally ice skate along - the downside being that it took you ten hours to get anywhere at all and you were very likely to fall flat on your face at least ten times during any given journey. Apparently my arrival in Berlin sparked the worst winter since 1972, so yay! ;)

On the upside it was pretty adorable to see the ways that Berliners change when the snow comes. People just drag their kids along on sledges for example. They literally pack their toddlers on a sledge and trot off like so to the shops or to nursery school. Really cute to see!

On the issue of falling over, I once went for a coffee on Friedrichstrasse and took a seat next to the window. I'm not sure if my aura was to blame but ten people in a row fell over outside right in front of where I was sitting. It was literally like, whoomph!... wait a second... whoomph! And then I left the cafe and fell over too, so there to me! ;)

Pixie feet

Bonjourno amigos! Hmm was that half Italian and half Spanish?

Well I made a pact with myself to write one blog entry every day - provided of course I actually have something worth writing about. I didn't write one yesterday, so here's a rundown of nice things I spotted around Berlin today.

I woke up nice and early and headed to a lovely little cafe for a coffee and a quiet perusal of my emails. The whole cafe was filled with single women doing the same... odd that. I wonder if there are more women than men in Berlin?

After I finished up my milchcafe und Kasekuchen, I headed off to German class on the u-bahn and saw this great little busker in the station really giving it his all. He was sitting there in the walkway of the station putting his whole body into his guitar and singing at the top of his lungs followed by little bursts of laughter.

A few passers by had stopped to watch and also seemed to be really getting into the performance. One guy was filming him with a camera and the others were grooving in time with the music. Just as I was thinking how lovely it was that this guy was so into his song, I turned the corner and saw some people heading towards me who had just got off the train. They hadn't seen the busker yet but could hear his music.

One girl/woman was so excited by the music she was hopping from foot to foot in time with the song as she walked along - and I mean right on the tips of her toes like a little pixie. As I walked up to the platform I felt like it was one of those ahhhhhh, only in Berlin moments. What an invigorating start to the day! :)